Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, NT, who writes:
Hi Thomas,
A few months ago, a city in northern California gave away weather radios to help their community prepare for fire season. And last year a county in Georgia did the same thing in advance of extreme weather.
With all the fires and severe weather happening around the world, I’m curious if other communities have been doing emergency radio give-aways? I thought you or other SWLing Post readers might have seen similar stories?
73,
NT
Great question, NT!
Post readers: please comment if you know of other communities around the world who’ve deployed weather radios in an effort to prepare for natural disasters.
Oh yeah… Bought and modified the same WX Radio to construct Ye Poor Man’s EAS for Part #15 AM stations. https://archive.org/details/yepoormanseasrev2.1 Since February 2020, it’s rocked on without a hitch. One thing that you should consider is to lose that terribly RF noisy AC / DC switching wallwart for a transformered one. You will see a big difference, especially on the weaker NOAA WX Stations. Over all, for under $40.00USD, it’s a nice WX Radio package.
Early warning,is the key factor in many areas that are prone to dangerous storm events.Weather radio’s can provide that and probably have saved many lives.battery power or hand crank power are essential when the s**t hits the fan.A/C to D/C adapters,wall warts are great at saving battery power till the lights go out and whatever you want to call them is just semantics.I’m sure if George Carlin were still around,he would have a more juicier name for them ! beside “WALL WARTS”
Features of the Midland WR120:
SAME Localized Reception
Continuous Backlighting Option- Keeps the LCD on
25 Programmable Counties
Color Coded Alert Indicators
Alert Override automatically switches over to warn you of impending danger
Alarm Clock with Snooze
Silent programming
Single, Multiple, or Any S.A.M.E program settings
User Selectable Warning System -Voice, Display, or Tone alert types
Uses 3AA Alkaline batteries for emergency power back-up
Dimensions – 6.1” x 2.0” x 5.3′
Includes a power adaptor’
Yes the Midland WR120’s come with an AC adapter. Sadly these are all too common an item in Goodwill and other thrift stores here in the US. People don’t see the need for weather radios since they can get weather alerts on their phone I guess. I’ve picked up several extra units that support S.A.M.E. and cleaned them up for family and friends.
Concerning “Wall Warts” for power supply,over here in New Zealand down under the rest of the world we do not call them Wall Warts.We understand that a “Wart” is a small knob that can grow on your skin,and can be removed just like some moles.Instead we call the wall mounted power supply a “Power Adaptor” that gives the radio the supplied amount of power eg 9 volts etc either to save on battery power or if the batteries have gone flat,or to recharge them.So for us over here,its a “Power Adaptor” not a wall wart !!.
If they just run on batteries, that’s why we give them away!
They do run on a wall wart. I have one. It also has alkaline batteries for a backup. I see it having a good advantage over a cell phone since it listens to a transmitter on a tower. You put a code in for you county to minimize alarms that are not for you immediate area
They come with a wall wart power supply.
In the event of power failure they switch over to three
user-installed AA batteries but batteries are not intended
to be the primary supply due to the current draw,just to
give warning and info for a little while.
As for me, judging by the packaging I would say these are battery powered. They might be activated by an emergency signal broadcast from the transmitting station that will turn them on. I know there is a signal that activates our cell phones and warnings are given audibly over the phones in the event of severe weather approaching the service area. Now IMO, not such a thing as having too many devises to give warnings of impending disasters, human concerns such as Amber Alerts which also trigger warning alarms on the phones. Society as a whole must come together in all facets for the benefit of everyone in any circumstance. About the only people that I can say would be less affected by most of this is those living in very rural areas where chances of being affected by any of it are drastically reduced. And even then, not a bad idea to have as many means of alert as possible or practical.
…reckon they run on wall warts…..? 😉